Nokia [HMD Global] launches its first smartphone in China

January 08, 2017 – Nokia, the iconic mobile brand, is taking another shot at mobile industry. Nokia was once the champion of mobile market, but they failed to see the change in trends and hence their market share in mobile market plunged to nearing zero percent. While Nokia mobile devices started to vanish from users pockets and shops, Apple, Samsung, and some other players began taken over the market that was once totally dominated by Nokia. After 2010, Nokia’s annual income took a turn for the worse.

Nokia was unable to produce products that can compete with iPhone and other smartphones. As a result, Microsoft bought Nokia’s mobile phone business in 2014, a deal which proved to be unrewarding for Microsoft. In May 2016, a new company was formed by the name of HMD Group. Many Ex-Nokia employees are working at HMD. Based in Finland, HMD bought Microsoft’s phone business; Microsoft has only sold a specific part of their mobile business to HMD. One of the things HMD bought is the brand name Nokia; they can produce phones under Nokia’s brand name.

Today, HMD announced the release of Nokia 6; this is their first smartphone launch. According to the announcement, this new mobile phone is only available for purchase in China. They are going to sell Nokia 6 exclusively in China, at least for now. The retailer they chose in China is JD [Jingdong Mall.] History tells us that both Microsoft and Nokia have a bitter business experience of smartphones. Microsoft is one of the biggest companies in the world, if not the top one, but they have failed miserably in smartphone business. Take Microsoft Lumia as an example; it is now discontinued.

Both companies invested millions in the fast growing mobile industry, but it was too little too late. They failed to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung even when they joined hands and merged. It is worth noting that Nokia has neither any investment nor do they hold any shares of HMD; however, according to the license agreement, HMD is going to pay royalties for the brand and for the patents. This time around, Nokia Corporation is not behind this new smartphone, Nokia 6. The future of HMD is at stake here; if HMD is to succeed, Nokia 6 must succeed by offering good features. Its price is around $250, which is not much for a smartphone, but a low price tag isn’t the only thing you need to succeed in this business.